Dishwasher appliances generally have a wash chamber that includes one or more racks for the receipt of dishes, pots, pans, and other articles for washing. For example, an upper rack may be provided for glasses, cups, and smaller utensils while a lower rack provides for larger items such as pots, pans, and plates. In order to accommodate articles of different sizes, a mechanism for the height adjustment of one or more racks may be provided. One or more upper racks, for example, may be adjustable between different height levels in the dishwasher so that larger items can be placed either into the upper rack by adjusting it to a lower level, or to into the lower rack by adjusting the upper rack to a higher level. Other configurations for height adjustment of one or more racks may be used as well.
Frequently, one or more fluid supply conduits may be attached to the bottom wall of an upper rack in the dishwasher. This conduit may supply fluid to e.g., a spray arm assembly that provides wash fluid at a mid-level location in the dishwasher. For a dishwashing appliance with a front loading door, the racks are typically equipped to slide or roll along a horizontal direction to that the user can place or remove articles in the racks. As a result, where a conduit is attached to a movable rack, provision must be made for connecting the conduit with a fluid supply that is usually located toward the rear of the wash chamber. Preferably the connection with a fluid supply will be releasable and self-sealing so that it functions automatically as the user slides the rack assembly in or out of the dishwasher.
Where a rack assembly is height adjustable, challenges are created when providing such a connection for a fluid conduit carried on the rack assembly. These changes in height for the rack necessarily require that the connection point for the fluid conduit will also change height and, therefore, will contact the fluid supply at different locations. One approach to providing such a connection is to create multiple docking ports—each at a predetermined height along the rear wall of the wash chamber depending upon the fixed height levels for the rack. This approach requires that each docking port includes a sealing mechanism so that fluid is not released from one port when the conduit is connected to another port at a different level during operation of the dishwasher. Unfortunately, this can add unwanted complexity to the manufacture, assembly, and operation of the dishwasher.
Accordingly, a docking port for the connection of a conduit carried by a rack in a dishwashing appliance would be beneficial. More particularly, a docking port that can provide for connection of such conduit at different levels of the rack would be useful. Such a docking port that can also provide for sealing of the unused port would be useful.